BEDFORD — About a month ago, Fox Lane High School Principal Joel Adelberg looked out his office window next to the parking lot and noticed some school seniors were dressed up as if heading to a job interview.
Students had on ties and tucked-in dress shirts.
Adelberg was noticing the start of "Gentleman's Tuesday," where boys trade in their jeans, sweatshirts and T-shirts for formal garb such as blazers, slacks and ties.
The trend is credited to seniors Oliver Gabrielson, Jireh Swift, Austin Appel and Dylan Faitell, who started talking over the summer about how to add some fun to their final year in high school.
"The conversation was like 'How are we going to break up the (school) week?'" said Appel, who lives in Mount Kisco. "School was pretty imminent. We were kind of like 'Wow every week is about to be exactly the same, we want something that's going to split it up and make things more interesting.'"
Gabrielson, a Bedford Hills resident, said the effort is "bringing class to class." It goes beyond the ties, sports jackets and dress shoes. The idea is also to hold doors and shake hands instead of slapping high fives.
"I think it was kind of an innate reaction," Gabrielson, said of adding a layer of manners to the Tuesday dress code.
During an interview in Adelberg's office, Faitell looked out the window and spotted a fellow student coming into school looking more like he went to prep school than public.
"There are so many kids who are doing it now, I think probably about 40 to 50 guys doing it," said Faitell, a Pound Ridge resident. "It's just become like a whole different thing. Our whole motto behind it is we're not only looking fancy or dressing well but we hold doors, we speak properly — no high fives, only shaking hands."
Appel, who is used to wearing T-shirts and jeans most of the week, joked that any tie he wears on Tuesdays is borrowed from his father.
"We're still kids every other day of the week," Appel said.
Swift said he normally wears a button down shirt anyway outside of Tuesday. Not so much with the tie he sported on a recent Tuesday.
After the interview, Swift held the door for a reporter and photographer leaving the principal's office.
"By doing this, we're sort of, although doing a very small part, we're still bringing a little bit more (civility) into the world," Swift said of the Tuesday trend.
And a quick walk through the school library shows that spirit has spread. Gregg Goldberg, a senior, was wearing a grey corduroy suit jacket, purple shirt and black tie.
"You don't need to go to a fancy school to dress nicely," said Goldberg, who lives in Bedford.
Oliver Silzer, another senior who had on beige pants, a white dress shirt and sneakers, said his outfit was "mixing in the casual with the professional."
"They're a little classier than your average pair of Nikes," Silzer, a Pound Ridge resident said of his Ralph Lauren Polo shoes.
Adelberg is clearly pleased by the trend the four seniors started.
"It's a creative idea," the principal said. "That's nice so many of their classmates have gotten into the same spirit."
From
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Perhaps the meme is spreading?
Jeff Livingston
